April 2009 Vol. 236 No. 4

Projects

China Says Third West East Is In The Pipeline

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) will invest more than $US14.6 billion in a third West-East natural gas pipeline, China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau chief consultant Shifeng Su said.

“Preliminary work has already started on the pipeline, which will likely have an annual transmission capacity of 20-30 Bcm of gas sourced from Central Asia,” Su said. The pipeline, beginning in the northwest region of Xinjiang, will run parallel with the second West-East pipeline as far as Jiangxi province in eastern China, from which it will take a different route to its final destination, most likely to be the coastal province of Shandong.

The pipeline will not terminate in Beijing as the capital is already supplied by three pipelines running from the gas-rich province of Shaanxi.